Play on, you fools

That headline would apply to both NHL players and owners as it’s likely they are equally responsible in the very realistic possibility of the 2012-13 season being placed on hold – or worse.
I say it’s “likely” because this morning, I don’t care to break down their stances in negotiations on a new CBA. I mean really, does anybody know which side is most at fault? Does anybody really give a rat’s?
Don’t you just want the nonsense to end and for them to reach an agreement?
Do you feel sorry for the owners who have made a habit of handing out ridiculous contracts?
Do you empathize with the players, who won the last standoff and are now being asked to take a step back so the game has a better chance of survival?
And if that’s just the way the owners are painting the picture, I don’t care. They’re the bosses. They take the risks. There’s no canvas or brush unless they pay for them. At the end of the day, if they wanted to shut it all down, they could always hire replacement players. The product might suck, but they could do it.
The NHLPA needs somebody to pay the freight, right?
Even saying that, I’ve said too much. I got sucked into the quagmire. I’ve stated an opinion, when this morning, it’s not what I wanted to do. All I know is that the Olympics are finally and thankfully over and I want to start looking forward to NHL training camps.
But I can’t, because a month from when they are supposed to open, there are no guarantees. Far from it. If anything, I’m doubtful that the season will start when it’s supposed to, if at all.
I heard Senators assistant GM Tim Murray say on the Team 1200 the other day that he “doesn’t have an opinion” on which way things will go. I don’t believe that, but whatever. I also heard him say: “Will I be surprised if there’s a lockout? No, I won’t be surprised.”
It’s all so frustrating, when you really think about it. That’s why I’m not going to spend too much time dwelling on the matter now.
Feel free to offer your thoughts, or to vent, if you will.
I can’t promise I’ll read them, at least not this morning. It’s Monday, and I want to start the week with a positive attitude. Thinking about the CBA negotiations is a downer.

Tim Murray hasn’t got an opinion…shocker! “It is far better to say nothing and have people think you are a fool….”

I am with you Don; the entire Player/Owner thing bores me to tears. I don’t bother reading the particulars…don’t care. I will offer this much, I don’t think that me and my collegues over the years could have stood up and placed demands on Hewlett Packard, AT&T or the Bell Canada’s of the world. Can you imagine if we demanded to see ther books…the thought of it is absurd. I have no sympathy for priviledged athletes who get paid gaudy sums of money to “play” and then gripe about how much the owners are earning. Frankly, it is none of their business! If bums can get paid 650k per year, is there reason to bitch and complain? If the players feel so entitled, let them assume the risk, build a new league and become franchisees.

The owners and their General Managers who grant bizarre multi-million dollar decade long contracts are to blame for their woes but I think the players need a reality check! They need to focus more on balancing the distribution of wealth. Yes, the best should get paid the most but, by how much?! When two players on the NY Yankees earn as much and more than some other teams entire roster, something is very wrong. And, there is something very wrong when a player like Parise can earn 98 million dollars. I still maintain that if the maximum a player could earn in any sport was 1 millin dollars, they would gladly take it. The alternative, working 9-5 like the rest of the real world would be far less apealling.

Bitch and complain you spoiled brats and lock the bastards out Little Man…the only ones who really suffer are the thousands of employees whose lives directly or indirectly depend on every game being played. I love the game and would miss it if there was a lock out, but the entire affair is tiresome and a disgrace. To think the two sides had years to figure this out. They show so little respect for the men and women who earn a normal wage and the fans who celebrate and label them as Heroes and Gods. Many suggest we need to thank them for earning gaudy sums for playing a game they love. They retire decades before most people to live a life style most can only dream about…and we need to thank them??!! I think many have this backwards. The players need to thank the league, the owners and the fans! I love to watch the players and truly appreciate their abilities but I am not goofy enough to think of them as “great citizens of the community”. They play approximately 100 games a year (exhibitions games included) and half of them are away. Moreover, many players leave town in the off-season (God is in Sweden). So. exactly what do they do to earn the title of “great citizens of the community”. It is all propogandaand good for business (Senators organization) but far from the truth. They entertain and that is the sum of it! So, as Don suggests, play on you fools! You play…we will work.

It is insane and I don’t profess to know much of anything on the last negotiations but didn’t the players take a pay cut by rolling back salaries? Didn’t they also accept a salary cap and changes to the their UFA status? Didn’t they also agree to put a portion of their salary in escrow?

From what I know the owners got pretty much what they wanted and the players had to accept some significant changes to their pay structure.

I don’t fee sorry for either side but the owners and GM’s infuriate me by finding ways to sidestep their own rules and inflate players salaries over and over and over…if they wouldn’t hand out crazy contracts like candy then we wouldn’t have this issue now.

I do feel sorry for myself and other fans because I have come to really enjoy the coverage of the rookie camp and was looking forward to that happening before the main camp started…especially now when we have so many prospects to be interested in…seeing how they have developed over the summer will now have to wait.

The players won the last standoff? Oh, now I remember, the NHLPA was fighting tooth and nail for a hard salary cap. And the salary rollback, that too, they really wanted to receive only 76% of the salary listed in the contracts they had already signed. Clearly the players won the 04-05 lockout! In fact, as long as we’re reinterpreting the historical record, why not say that the players weren’t locked out at all. Instead, we’ll say “they went on strike for lower salaries.”

I’m assuming Don meant the players won because they have reaped the most benefits from the current agreement, plus the fact that it is the owners, who now refuse to operate under the current agreement, until a new one is agreed to.

I know very little about the issues because I have zero interest. I do know this, in the many years I have been in business, I have yet to see an individual or a team of exployees demand to see their employers books. Perhaps the players aren’t earning enough money. Watching them all line up behind their leader Fehr, it kind of reminds me of the Teamsters back in the day. Most of the players have had little education beyond highschool and only know what they are told…and, they are as fickle as hell. Perhaps they could all join the “Occupy” movement or support the Student Movement in Quebec.

I still maintain that if one million doallars was all a player could earn annually, they would gladly take it; the althernative, working like the rest of us and waiting until you are 65 to retire, is far less appealing. When bums can earn 650k/yr and players like Daisey the Air Rifle can earn 3m dollars (in 4 yeas) for “playing” a “game” the love, I should expect NHL hockey players would be more greatful. To think that the arrogant little “slow blinker” (Bettman, I never trusted slow blinkers) has doubled his income since 04 to $8m/anually is nauseating! The NHL couldn’t find a Canadian and a lawyer who may have played the game rather than are short ass (jumps over a pound of butter he greases his ass) who, in all likelyhood, couldn’t throw a baseball, or pull his groin tying his shoelaces, is shameful. He was a bum boy in the NBA but, great for the NHL and the NHL owners (of whom many have broken the law). The owners are no better. I often wonder how these multi-millinaires/billionaires made their money. On one hand they will allow their GMs to award 100m dollar contracts to players but on the other hand want to lock them out for a year? Am I missing something. I am quite sure most get into the game because of their enormous egos (because on less you are orangizations like the NY Yankees or MLSE, it isnt the best investment in the world) and a tighter clique you will no find anywhere. Locking out a Canadian billionaire who loves and plays hockey from bringing a team to a hockey starved city that WOULD support a team, was nothing short of silly. To underscore the insanity, the league buys a team that the fans do not want to see and continues to pay 25 million in debt to keep it there. Fools all of them!

To think they have had years to work this out. Will I miss watching NHL hockey, you are damn straight I will. Will I lose sleep over it….not on your life. But, who will lose sleep are the thousands of regular working class folk whose lives and incomes are dependant (directly and indirectly) on hockey being played. The arrogant owners, their puppet Bettman and the overpaid kids who are annointed as Gods and Heroes…simply don’t give a damn.

When the last agreement was signed, that sickening smirk on Bettman’s face told everyone that the owners won, and Bettman convinced the owners that they’d won. BUT THEY DIDN’T WIN. In the end, the cap ends up just a few years later almost double what it was then. The players ended up as the big winners.
This time Bettman has baited them, come out with a ridicules offer that he knows even a dummy wouldn’t accept, and this new guy they have Feur (sp) is no dummy.
I’ll tell you what, I loved baseball, loved it, listened to every game on the radio unless it was on TV, lived it, more than hockey, went to probably 15 games a year in Montreal, enough was enough, I wouldn’t give you a nickel for a game of baseball any more. Hockey is coming up next.
But the owners don’t give a god d@#M, and the players don’t either, all they really want is to figure out how to screw the fans out of more money

The players won for sure. 10-year deals, no-trades handed like candy, spiralling salaries and an ever-mediocre product.

I’m on the side of the owners. Crush the players if you need to, but get some kind of sanity back to contracts and finances. Every player in this league can be replaced, all they are are quant anecodotes, goals and assits. The owners are the ones that take all the risks and they should be the ones dictating what goes down. Of course the players WILL have a say, but…the total money needs to be split 50/50 and any deal longer than 5 years needs to be revoked.

Take as long as you need owners, it’s the players that need to play…and it costs less with no hockey around.

I watched the Canada Russia Junior Challenge with great interest (we may not get to see NHL hockey for quite some time). Some of the players were outstanding but year after year the brilliant executive with Hokey Canada fell compelled to handicap the teams chances with mediocre coaches and players. Before last year, Jenner and Sutter scored 1 and 4 goals respectively and do very little but skate around and look for a hit. The very small Liepsic is much of the same except he is generously listed as 5-9. There is another who scored quite a few goals but in the USHL (a very far cry from CHL).

Who starred in the 4 games series…the stars starred and Canada has many! The usual suspects on Defence were good: Hamilton (but I did expect more) but Murphy, Murray and Reilly were outstanding! Dumba showed signs of what he is capable of doing. Ceci was not at his best in fact, he looked awful. The 17 year old Monohan was very good and as predicted after seeing him play only a couple of games early last year, I believe he will go very high in the draft next year!

Perhaps those who were not at their best may have a good excuse, the Coach. First off, he looked like Adolf Hitler behind the bench but it was his message that drove me crazy! Where as I would tell the kids “show me what you are capable of doing with your God given talent” Spott told them all “they had to play with discipline or they would not be invited to play Canada in the WJC at Christmas time”! Now some, usually the older more confident kids, would not be bothered by that message but some I truly believe held back for fear of making a mistake. Ceci is a gifted skater, puck handler, shooter and passer but he showed me nothing! Dumba is another very talented kid but he too did very little. This exhibition is just that, an exhibition! Where Russia select their best players and the coaches let the horses run, Hokey Canada feel compelled to select some lunch pail hockey players and dumbass coaches who put restrictions on their players.

Why does Hokey Canada believe the teams need to prevent goals? Canada has the best hockey players in the world but they shouldn’t represent their country…should they? Over the years we have seen fantastic hockey players passed over or added only as surplus. Do the Fins, Swedes or Russians build teams that way? If not, why not (it must be a fantastic formula just ask Hokcey Canada).

I am sick of seeing Bob Nicholson and his message. I do not want to see Ken Dryden again as long as I live and I certainly don’t want to listen to him talk (I would rather have my finger nails yanked out). The Hunters, who have built the most successful franchise in the CHL, never get selected to coach the Canadian Juniors (now there is another topic for a good story that will NEVER be told). Just once, I would love to see the powers that be choose the best talent available. Afterall, a talented hockey player can play defence but a bum can’t score goals!

Bobby,
I agree with you on NHL salaries. Set a limit and if the players don’t like it they can play in Siberia. It’s the same with baseball, Why are the owners paying some players 25 million per season? The players only other choice is Japan.

Choker,
I agree with you on baseball. I totally lost interest in the game when the Expos had the best team in baseball, the season was cancelled, and the Expos got rid of all of their best players the following season.

Well friends, life has changed as we know it. It was announced yesterday that Augusta National has finally succomed to pressure and inivted two women to join the golf club. It fascinates me why women want to join men only clubs. Men don’t want to join the multitiude of women only fitness centers nor have they made a fuss over the Belizean Grove, a highly selective club for women only, the Sotomayor’s club for women only, Sunningdales Ladies Club or the Ladies Golf Club of Toronto top name but 4. Some of them have been around since 1909 and I say good on them! I rememer when men could go to the”P” (Prescot) for beers to watch and talk about sports and then the women objected. Women ojected to the male reporters having access tot he locker rooms before and after games and that has since changed which led to some issues of leud behaviour. With an overwhelming number of clubs, restaurants, organizations and facilities open to both sexes, why is there an issue with the very few who want to be gender specific? Hey, lets have women become General Managers for NHL hockey teams, scouts, referees and linesmen and…commisioners (Oh, we got one already)! Of course, like Firefighters, the powers that be would have to change the minimum mandatory requirements to allow for the finer sex to qualify. Some women simply are not satisfied being women: they need to compete against old men in tennis, get slaughered in golf tournaments, play in obscure hockey leagues in Europe, race cars because they may look pretty. I have no issue with women only clubs…bvut then again, I like many others like me do not have V envy! Shame on you Augusta National.

Sadly, there is no activity here again. The reality is, it doesn’t take very much. I think a 5 minute investment is all that is needed to shake the limbs. Oh, has anyone seen God at the Royal Ottawa recently (the last 6 months). He, like the rest of them, is only a hockey player and that is it. A good one but only a gaudy rich hockey player. It is interesting how we make heroes out of many (are we so starved of legitimate heroes?). Smiling Jack Layton has been deified and for the life of me, I don’t know what it is that he may have done! I know he and his wife lived in subsidized housing when he was a member of City Council in Toronto and was fond of messages butt naked. But aside having the ability to smile 24 hours a day and speak 3 languages fluently, what is it that he actually did aside from pander to Quebec that warrants all the trubutes?

So Don…I am sure you made national TV and were part of an “altercation” that spurred TSN’s Top 10 meltdowns? Where were you because it looked like you were around some hockey rink and it sounded like it was only a couple of weeks ago?

You took the verbal lashing quite well I must say but I am also curious what you wrote or said to the guy about pay for play in the CHL?

Don’t give a shirt about the players or the owners another loss of a season by Gary and his tough guy agenda will make me think seriously of giving up on pro hockey the way I have on baseball and the NFL (except for gambling). Don’t care if PK Subban makes 15 million a year or a buck fifty, until real fans are actually considered on the same level as revenue streams and other wall/bay st bull it doesn’t matter. Pick your poison the absolute socialism of the NFL (practiced by the US,s greatest capitalists by the way) or MLB s model of letting hinterland teams become farm teams for the glamour big market franchises or something in between like the convoluted NBA nonsense that I defy anyone to explain. Do SOMETHING get a 10 year contract and PLAY.
Guilty as anyone spent yesterday in T O for the Bruce concert had meal at MLSE real sports bought the kid leaf jersey, 400 bones into the coffers, we are all suckers!
Thought that last nite would be my last Springsteen, first in 78, it was one of the best I have ever seen went on to Stubhub and got tickets for the Oct 19 Scotiabank Corel Palladium show as soon as we got home. 3 hours 45 mins of greatness crazy to miss it in your back yard.

Mikey, a friend and I went to Montreal to watch that ‘Spos team in the shortened season. They had the best team in baseball then and as an avid Baseball and ‘Spos fan I was excited to see them play. They didn’t disapoint as they beat the Dodgers but what was disapointing was the attendance. I think there may have been 10k fans in the stands. Montreal didn’t deserve a baseball team,

I wonder if the PQ form the next Quebec Provincial Government if they will have a member of the Language Gestapo sitting on the Canadiens bench or dressing room to ensure that only French is spoken? The leader harbors so much anger towards the English but is glad to accept (year after year) the Equalization (dole) which dwarfs all other payments to the other provinces. The Federal Separtatists have no problem cashing in their Federal cheques ever month! To think that Canada is Officially a bilingual country (absorbing the enormous cost of doing so) to pacify 13% of the country that are French speaking and most of them live in Quebec which is militantly unilingual French (and that percentage continues to dwindle). Are we all mental? The “insurgents” come out of the closet when a unilingual hockey coach or team Captain is announced. I have to wonder if the “young”: drama teacher (Trudeau) recognizes his Quebec (he did say he didn’t recognize Canada). The province he is so familiar with is racist, inflexible, militant, get the most in Equalization Payments, is the most corrupt, doesn’t not support Bilingualism, has a strong element who want to leave the union…indeed, the Drama Teacher must be very proud because he has yet to say a word about it. Perhaps he will go to a hockey game once the Canadiens all become “pure bloods”.

It continues to baffle me why Quebec City waits for a franchise with so many franchises south of the border struggling! Can this be on Bettman or are there other factors at play here? Does a franchise in Phoenix really make a lot of sense? There are approximately 6 teams that struggle below the 49th parallel but all teams in Canada fill the seats in every arena! Quebec City would do the same as would a team in Hamilton. Damn I cannot stand that smug smuph Bettman.

Is Ron Maclean really the best available for the Woman’s Canadian Open. He and Friedman were both awful and it is an embarrassment. But, in the CBC world he is ubiquitous….can we expect to see Bozo the Clown next (Dum Cherry). He would fit right in because he and John Daly get their clothes from the same place!

Kev, you are oh so right. It is hard for me to understand why anyone could be a Yankee fan. I could be their GM…as you say, allow the other teams to invest in drafting and nuturing young talent until the very best emerge and then the Steinbrenner’s open their very large wallets! It takes no talent and that is the real definition of “money ball”. I love the game and love sport but money is killing it for me. The NHL will probably lose many months if not the year and part of me says so what! If the hockey players feel so hard done by…let them assume all the financial risk build their own league! To hell with them all including the Heros, KIngs and Gods.

I saw The Boss at the Civic Center in 1980 and it by far was the very best concert I had ever seen. The band was tight, fun and Bruce was young and full of energy. He sang stuff for years before he hit it big (10th Avenue Freeze out and stuff). Springsteen and the E Street Banmd played over 3 hours!! That summer I saw another one of my favorites, Bob Seager. The Silver Bullet Band, with Alto Reed on the Sax was awsome but it was Seager doing songs from the early days like Ramblin Gamblin Man to his chart topping hits of the time that made it an experience. Oh, I remember, I remember, I remember….

I have heard that a lock out, or what ever they want to call it, may kill some of the weaker teams…I say great! The league needs contraction! Lets be honest here, there are many bums in the league and it is all due to the sad fact there are far too many teams. Daisey may have been the worst but many teams may have their version of Missing Klinks, Dogs and OhmyGod’Briens! 30 teams is great for the players but bad for hockey fans who appreciate skill.

It appears that this year will be shortened by months and that may be the most optimistic scenario. I am sure there are many, like Malkin, who are making plans. It will be interesting to see where Ottawa’s best go to play. I would assume the KIng and God will go home but where will Spez play? Wouldn’t it be fun to have Bingo play 10 games here in Ottawa with all the kids on the team?

If the year is cancelled, it does give those GMs who are on the bubble a reprieve (Lord Burke, Doogie Wilson, Murray).

It will always amaze me how the much better the players are (no matter what sport) at each level. I can remember a friend who was a very good squash player moving up in a Club ladder and getting smoked. We have seen NCAA first draft choices in baseball and football fail. Bingo won a cup with some kids who cannot play in the NHL and last year Toronto’s farm team competed for the AHL supremacy with kids who, I suspect, will be mediocre at best if they make the NHL (some have been up and down and have shown very little and their best player was veterean who has been banished).

Is this feud between the owners and players a war of attrition as members of the media may suggest? Does any of it make sense at all. The Farley brothers vs the Smug Smurph and Chrome might make for a great commedy but it is playing out like a box office bomb tragedy. But isn’t it an accurate glimpse at professional sport in North America. Perhaps it is just me but I strongly suspect the Benjamins have tarnished the reputation of the individuals we have enjoyed watching over the years. The get paid more and they want more and they get more. I used to watch this fun Golf Tournament called the “Travistock Cup” (in reality it was another excuse to inundate golf fans with images opf Caligula). These vey wealthy golfers were were playing for large sums of money, Escalades, power boats, for their enbtire team. I love golf but it did make me ill. The same is happening in the NHL. With so many Northg Americans out of work, stuggling to survive, losing homes etc. the optics of a labour dispute (in most professions but most certainly in professional sport) is God awful. When I see the NHL stars all lined up behind the Farlley brothers, it reminds me of the Bugs Bunny cartoon where he is caught between of of warring hillbillies where plays a fiddle and plays them to do whatever he wants (it is absolutely a classic). Indeed the hockey players are the fools albeit very well paid ones, but they have lost touch of reality.

Bobby, in my opinion it is very obvious that Bruce and Don truly have no interest in this blog. Not a peep in 3 weeks is evidence. I am convinced that this blog site is nothing more than a pain in the ass for them and that they are obliged (compelled) by Sun management to host this site. I would bet my house that if Bruce and Don could wash their hands of this site, they would.

Best rock concert I saw was the original Who (with Keith Moon) in NYC back in 1976. Second best show was Maury Logan and the Targets at the old Standish Hall in Hull.

By the way Bruce, what an incredible coincidence that you are back from holidays and I assume back at work, in the middle of a week prior to a long weekend, just in time to respond to my insightful e-mail. I really should by a lottery ticket tonight.

I never saw the Who, Dan, but they were one of my favouites way back when and IMO never got the credits they should have got like what those that went to the Beatles and Stones (they had a bigger sound and they too were ground breaking orignials). Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t include the Playdates at the Glenlea, Hughie Scott, everywhere and Terry Dee and More…at the Green Door.

Bobby, don’t forget all the great bands that played at the old Ottawa House (e.g Merge). The Chaud and the Glenlea (Sunday nights) were hopping. How we survived driving home across the Champlain with a belly full of beer is beyond me. Was it Hughie Scott and the Sunshine Boys?

Indeed there were many great bands one of the very best was the Staccatos…the OH! OH My God! I remember when I played Junior Hockey in ‘Ull, I could go anywhere but after I left, for some reason every body wanted a piece of me and I was ascared (without a stick to bludgeopn someone with I was useless). My ass was saved one night leaving the Chaud and a group approached me…in the group was a brother of a guy I played with…I never went back to la Cite d’Ull after dat me.

As for Hughie Scott, he beat out a young singer at Fisher Park Highschool when my older bro went there…the young singer was shorter than Tom Cruise but had some lungs. Hughie was doin’ his Elvis thang and the little muchkin was doing his won stuff. The little guy lefty Ottawa with 100 bucks and became a international teen Idol…his name was Paul Anka.

Welcome back Bruce so exactly when…………..aw never mind.
Fock how old are you guys? Sure you didn’t see the Andrews sisters over there? Used to play the Hull Volant and see Rompin Ronny at the Chaud ant the Talisman , thought I was old.

Kevin, we are a few meters from 60 years old. It sounds like you might be catching up to us. Was Steve Desloges (captain and defenceman) playing for the Hull Volant at that time? Sadly he passed away 10+ years ago, perhaps more.

Don’t remember many of the Volant guys names, they were a great hitting team but never had great pitching. Great black and white unis ahead of their times.Turpin Pontiac, and Overbrook (Pete Laframbois was scary fast) were some of the other teams we would play when we country bumpkins would come to the big city. Had great fun kicking the hell out of the Bayshore juniors a couple of times in tourneys Randy Blondin pitched for them, talk about redass! Great fun. Played the 67 alumni in Kemptville it was great, both Potvins, Bill Clement, Laframbois there were a bunch of great players, think that maybe both Skinners played as well fantastic fastball players.

No disrespect to Blondin, obviously a good athlete , my pals played against him when he was jr b in Kemptville , was he a 67 for a while? I expect that is him who does well in golf tournaments the age is right.

Wasn’t there a fantastic pitcher named Joe Belisle back then playing for Turpin? I remember trying to hit against a fastball pitcher many years after playing only hardball and going as far as Babe Ruth…and being totally useless. The ball was on top of me so quick I couldn’t believe it and I had never seen an upshoot before!!! My swing had to shorten up and get much quicker…it was an embarrassment. There were so may great ball players in Ottawa and the Valley. I heard Gerry Teeple (an excellent hockey player) was an great Fast Ball player. Larry Skinner was outstanding (did he not play for Canada?), Bullard who is often ignored as a hockey player (scored 50 goals in the NHL for a last place Penguin team) was very good. Both Moe and Larry Robinson were very good. Another fantastic athlete was Donny Belsher…he was slicker than snot on the ice, could throw a football a mile (Valiquette’s Allouettes?) and good ball player. As a side note, he along with many others who played and starred in the Central Junior Hockey League were ignored by the dumbass 67′s coach at the time, Bill Long (he ignored Larry Robinson for 2 years and was interested only when the went to play for Kitchener Rangers.

Joe Belisle was certainly one of the best fastball pitchers in the 60′s & early 70′s. Another superstar pitcher was Casselman (Doug?). Are there any fastball leagues in Ottawa today?? Remember when the RA centre was a flood of fastball games going on from 6:00pm to midnight all week long. I guess the only softball played today is mixed slow pitch. Sadly soccer is taking over.

Still some kid/junior stuff around the Brockville area, just not enough interest to support a men’s league, people just don’t get the beauty of watching or playing in a seven inning game when the pitchers routinely would strike out 15 to 20 hitters. The good athletes woud rather hit a lobbed bal 300 ft 7 times a night in slow pitch than compete versus a skilled hard throwing pitcher, to each their own.My brother played against Big Doug Casselman in the old Dundas league Brockville,Williamsburg Domville and Cardinal and various others over the years. Just a great league full of terrific players, man the pitching! Ted Hoy, Blaine Healey later his brother Pete, Alex Skakum and Pete Onstein Roger Hogdkinson and on and on,surely one of the best leagues in the country at the time.

There are some leagues for sure Dan. My neice’s hubby is anbelievable player and good enough to play for a team that represents Canada in tournaments all over (one in Italy coming up). But I get your point; baseball used to be so big; do you remember all the Little Leagues and the parades? All the Babe Ruth Teams across the City?
Soccer? Don’t get me goin’. Ultimate Frisby….YIKES! Highschoold football used to be very big. I remember the Pigskin Parade. There is a school in Toronto that has banned playing with balls of any kind. Some have no running, jumping etc. There used to be many outdoor hockey leagues. But thje City would rather pay hundreds of thousands of dollars on eye sores they call……art. Blow off 28m in penalties for cancelling the Light Rail.

The world sure has changed. As a 6 year old I remember taking the number 4 Mann-Chapel bus from Mann and Chapel to the Ottawa Boys club at 412 Nepean Street every Saturday. Today, kids can’t even play outside without mommy and daddy watching every move.

Last Canadian team to make it to the Little League World series finals was Stoneycreek back in 1964. They edged us (Overbrook) out 2-1 in the Ontario finals. We had ex CFL’er Wade Clare on the mound. For awhile we had Denis Potvin pitching however for some strange reason his father took him off the all star team to go on vacation. With Potvin in the lineup, it could have been Overbrook in Williamsport back in 1964.

I can remember trying to hit Bryan McSheffrey when he ptiched in Babe Ruth in an All Star Game. I was never any good with a curve ball and Bryan could bring the fast ball baby. I don’t know what happened but he had all the tools to play and star in the NHL.

As soon as I could skate, I spent most of every free minute on the outdoor rinks….often gong in to dry off and warm up by the stove in the hut (Alexander park). We all drank from a single chained cup we would dip into the water provided (perhaps that’s why we were never sick).

As for Potvin, I hear he was an outstanding lacrosse player as well (but damn his nasal drone and homerism is nauseating huh?). I can remembver as a 16 year old trying out for the 67s and playing against guys like: Brian McSheffrey, Terry Murray, Billy Clement, Peter Lafromboise, Murray Wilson, Pierre Jarry, Jean Potvin, Bunny Larocque. and Denis…he was on the ice for about 20 minutes one practice and Long came over and told him to go shower he said: “we know what you can do”. Some great memories for sure.

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Bruce Garrioch is an award-winning journalist and a must-read in the hockey community. A Day-Oner at the Ottawa Sun, Garrioch is one of the top sports journalists in the country, covering the Senators since their return to the NHL in 1992-93. A 2009 winner of an Ontario Newspaper Award for his coverage of the Dany Heatley saga, Garrioch has a strong ability to break news and brings inside information with his Sunday NHL column, one of the most popular in the country. It is read by GMs, players and coaches who want the inside scoop. Garrioch has covered the 2008 Stanley Cup final for Sun Media, the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and 2006 Games in Turin, Italy. Mainly, Garrioch has the pulse of the Ottawa Senators. If people want to know what's happening they turn to him to get the info on contracts, negotiations, signings, trades and, of course, games.

Don Brennan is a Day 1 employee of the Ottawa Sun. He has spent the majority of his 23 years as a sports reporter/columnist, covering the Senators since their return to the NHL in 1992, and prior to that writing about the Rough Riders, 67's and other sports. Brennan also wrote a Page 6 column in the Sun for nine months. A native of North Bay, Brennan moved to attend Centennial College in 1978. He remained in Toronto for a decade, working first as a freelancer, than an editor with the Toronto Sun. Brennan has lived in Ottawa full time ever since.

Don Brennan and Bruce Garrioch are Ottawa's all-star hockey writing duo, and will be regularly contributing to Off The Posts.

Their combined experience covering local, national and international hockey means they have the sources to get the inside information on the Senators and the NHL which might not be available to others.

Check back often for notes, quotes and commentary. They might even disagree with each other once in awhile.